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Law & Order: SVU aired its 600th episode on Thursday night, a milestone Variety covered with a focus on the long partnership between star Mariska Hargitay and producer Dick Wolf. The show has run since its 1999 debut, and Variety reported that Hargitay described the cast and crew as a family. After the episode wrapped, Wolf gathered the current and former cast and crew, including Christopher Meloni, for a dinner party, where he gave a speech saying, "This has never happened, and it will never happen again." Hargitay said she never expected the show to reach 600 episodes but credited Wolf with seeing that it could, and she praised the series as healthy, fresh and important. In the milestone episode, written by Michele Fazekas and directed by Brenna Malloy, jury consultant Gwen Sharpe persuades Benson to revisit a 1998 rape and murder case, which leads her to reunite with Stabler. Variety reported that the episode ran nearly 12 minutes over time.